Learning and Recognizing Archeological Features from LiDAR Data

Abstract

We present a remote sensing pipeline that processes LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) data through machine deep learning for the application of archeological feature detection on big geo-spatial data platforms such as e.g. IBM PAIRS Geoscope [1], [2].Today, archeologists get overwhelmed by the task of visually surveying huge amounts of (raw) LiDAR data in order to identify areas of interest for inspection on the ground. We showcase a software system pipeline that results in significant savings in terms of expert productivity while missing only a small fraction of the artifacts.Our work employs artificial neural networks in conjunction with an efficient spatial segmentation procedure based on domain knowledge. Data processing is constraint by a limited amount of training labels and noisy LiDAR signals due to vegetation cover and decay of ancient structures. We aim at identifying geo-spatial areas with archeological artifacts in a supervised fashion allowing the domain expert to flexibly tune parameters based on her needs.